The Partnership Economy

CHAPTER 17What's Next? Prepare for the Future

When Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah founded HubSpot, they thought they were starting a software company, but as it turns out, they sparked a movement. The movement, otherwise known as inbound marketing, is a marketing methodology for building relationships with customers and other stakeholders. It was born out of the observation that people are tired of “push” marketing strategies—marketing that pushes products out to a target audience, whether members of that audience have indicated an interest or not. People don't want to be constantly interrupted by advertising or salespeople selling something; instead, they want help in meeting their goals or they want to be left alone. Inbound marketing is an answer to that desire. A “pull” marketing methodology, inbound marketing was designed to help customers meet their goals at every stage of their journeys with enterprises and their brands. It attracts and retains customers by creating valuable and often personalized content and experiences that enable people to find what they are looking for—when they are looking for it. It's enterprises doing what their referral partners do naturally.

To be clear, in addition to starting a movement, Halligan and Shah did start a highly successful company that enables inbound marketing strategies. HubSpot's original product offering, circa 2006, took the form of marketing automation software. Over the years, its product offering expanded to include a ...